Conservation Reader Part 8

We have come to depend upon trees to supply so many of our wants that we could not possibly do without them. We can no more spare the trees than Nature can. She needs them in her work of protecting the soil on the steep slopes and of holding back the raindrops that they may keep the springs alive. She needs them to form nesting places for the birds, and she needs the dark forest so that the wild creatures may find shelter and a home.

It would be strange if we did not love the trees; for they are not only useful, but add so much to the beauty of our homes. Our early ancestors may at times have made their homes in the trees, as some of the wild people do now. They certainly lived among the trees, for the myth stories that they have given us speak of the deep, dark forests and of the mysterious people supposed to inhabit them.

We feel pity for the people who live in treeless deserts. The few articles of wood which they possess have to be brought a long distance at great cost. The Eskimos of the frozen North are more helpless than the desert people, for before the coming of explorers they had no communication with forested regions. They were not wholly without wood, however, for the ocean waves occasionally washed pieces upon their sh.o.r.es.

From the time when the earliest man found a club a better weapon than his bare fists, wood has been used for an ever-increasing number of purposes. Wood fires kept the early people warm. Wood was used in making their bows and spears; bark and pieces of branches served to make their rude homes.

The inner bark of the cedar and birch was used by the Indians in weaving baskets and mats. From the inner bark of the birch tree they made canoes that were so light that they could be carried from one stream to another. Where there were no birch trees, great cedars were cut or burned down and made into canoes, for traveling by water was much easier than over rocky ground or through dense forests. Some tribes of Indians learned to split the cedar logs into rude boards which they used in making their houses. The Indians also learned to boil down the sweet sap of the maple until it turned to sugar.

The eating of nuts and fruits furnished by certain kinds of trees came as natural to early men as it does to the other animals. They shared with the birds the wild fruits, and divided with the squirrels the many kinds of nuts. So highly do the Italians still value the wild chestnut that this tree, almost alone of all the forest trees that once covered their country, has been saved.

The most important uses of trees in our country are for lumber, for fuel, and for the edible fruits and nuts which they bear. There are several purposes to which logs are put without being sawed into lumber, such as for telegraph poles and for piling for the support of great buildings and for wharves. Long ago nearly all our houses were made of logs. There was then an abundance of clear, straight trees but very few sawmills. It was easy to cut the logs, peel and notch them at the ends, and then lay them up in a house of just the size that was wanted. From the logs that split easily rough boards and shingles were made, as well as chairs and tables. Blocks of wood were set in the openings cut for windows, because of the scarcity of gla.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Fairbanks_ A giant sugar pine in a National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.]

Our forefathers had all the wood they wanted just for the cutting, and so they warmed their houses by means of fireplaces large enough to hold great logs. They made of wood every tool and household convenience for which this substance could be used. Indeed, they had more wood than they wanted. Trees covered so much of the land that the ground could not be cultivated until they had been cut away. Now we wish that we had the oak, hickory, black walnut, and other kinds of trees, that the pioneers of our country burned in order to get them out of the way, for they have become very valuable.

Now, partly because wood is becoming scarce, and partly because our large buildings must be made very strong and safe from fire, we are using other materials for them. Stone, brick, and concrete, when tied together with iron beams, are more suitable material for great buildings. Our land now contains so many people, and so many new homes are needed every year, that the lumber required for houses alone is almost more than we can believe.

The forests are now disappearing so fast that unless we use wood more carefully we may have to give up our attractive wooden homes and cheery fireplaces and live in houses of stone or concrete. In many parts of the world people have so completely destroyed the forests that they have not only to make their homes of mud bricks or stone, but have little wood left for fuel and other purposes.

We cannot mention all the purposes to which wood is put in our homes and in our industries. It would take a whole page in this book merely to make a list of them. What we ought to remember, however, is that it is not so much the amount of wood that we actually _use_ as it is the wood that is _wasted_ that is likely to bring us to want. Two thirds of the wood of the trees cut throughout our country is wasted in its manufacture into lumber and other objects. Besides this, as much wood is burned every year in needless forest fires as is cut by the lumberman.

The waste of trees that are cut merely for their bark which is used in tanning leather is a wrong for which Nature will sometime call us to account.

In Switzerland, where the forests are given the care that we bestow upon a garden, not a particle of wood is allowed to go to waste. The branches are all picked up and saved. Even the sawdust is made use of in the manufacture of wood alcohol, which has an important use as fuel.

There are many kinds of trees the sap of which has great value. If care is used in tapping the trees, they are not greatly injured and will live for years. Sap of the maple affords delicious maple sugar. The sticky sap of the coniferous trees is obtained by making a cut in the bark.

Canada balsam, thus obtained, is a clear liquid from a fir tree of the same name. It is the finest of all the turpentines and is used for many purposes in the arts. Enormous quant.i.ties of turpentine are obtained from the yellow pines. The pine forests of the Southern states supply nearly all our turpentine. From this by a process of distillation is obtained resin and spirits of turpentine.

The rubber tree found in the tropical forests has become one of the most necessary of trees. Rubber made from the sap of this tree is now used for many purposes for which we have been able to find no other material.

We sometimes forget how valuable trees are for various substances used in medicine. Our lives may depend on having such medicines within reach. Quinine made from the bark of the cinchona tree is perhaps the most important. Camphor gum is furnished by another tropical tree. The acacia supplies gum arabic. The poison, strychna, comes from a nut tree.

The eucalyptus, birch, and other trees too numerous to name, supply various other medicinal products.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Arthur D. Little, Inc., "The Little Journal"_ When this beautiful long-leaf pine tree is cut we manage to save only about one third of it. From the wasted two thirds of this and other pine trees we could obtain many thousand tons of paper, great quant.i.ties of resin, and other products.]

While we are trying to find other substances to replace wood as far as is possible, so as to keep the forests from being used up, we are requiring more and more for the manufacture of paper. The spruce forests are fast disappearing in pulp mills, from which the blocks of wood emerge as sheets of paper. Perhaps after a time we shall find something to take the place of wood in the manufacture of paper.

The one use to which we put the trees, which does not destroy or injure them in the slightest, is growing them for their fruit and nuts. We take great care of such trees, selecting the best varieties and cultivating, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, and spraying them in order to keep them healthy and strong.

The better the care that we give them, the finer and larger become their fruits.

Trees are valuable to us in so many ways and appeal so deeply to our love of the beautiful things in Nature that we should all be interested in them. If we give the trees a chance, they will do their share toward making our lives comfortable and happy.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WHERE HAS NATURE SPREAD THE FOREST?

Our forefathers who came across the water to America found forests stretching away from the water's edge into an unknown wilderness. The settlements spread very slowly into the pathless woods, for there lurked danger from the Indians and wild animals. The Allegheny Mountains also held the settlers back for a long time.

The pioneers found the country, as far as the Ohio River and beyond, still forest covered; but by and by openings or _prairies_ began to appear. By the time they had crossed the Great River the forests had been left behind, except for fringes of trees upon the lowlands along the streams.

From this point westward the open prairies stretched away to the horizon. Antelope, deer, and buffalo were often seen feeding on the rich gra.s.ses. The adventurous pioneers pushed on across the fertile prairies, coming at last to a drier and higher region which we have called the _Great Plains_. On these plains the Rocky Mountains came in sight. These mountains gradually became higher as the travelers approached, until they rose before them like a mighty wall. Here they again met vast forests, which covered all the higher slopes.

Beyond the Rocky Mountains they crossed a broad land of deserts where little rain fell. The vegetation was so scanty and springs so far apart that many of their horses and cattle died. The dreary and barren deserts were followed by another lofty range of mountains. Entering these mountains, the pioneers came upon the most magnificent forest that had yet been seen upon our continent. After traveling for some days over rugged mountains, they at last emerged from the forests upon the Great Valley of California.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A forest of great trees in the Sierras, near the Yosemite Valley.]

Scattered over portions of the valley were oak trees, giving it the appearance of a park. When the valley had been pa.s.sed the pioneers climbed the last mountain range, and from this range looked down upon the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Here they found forests again, some of the trees being of enormous size. Thus we see that the eastern part of the continent was nearly all forested, but that in the West the forests grew chiefly on the mountains, because there is not enough rainfall upon the plains and in the valleys.

The trees that make up most of the forests of our country are of two very different kinds. There is one kind that has narrow or needle-like leaves which they keep through the winter. These we commonly call _narrow-leaved_ trees or _conifers_. The most important of the narrow-leaved trees are the pines, firs, spruces, and hemlock. Such trees form the forests of the greater part of the highlands of the northern and northeastern parts of our country. The pines also find a congenial home upon the lowlands of the Southern states. Trees of the second kind have broad leaves, and usually their wood is rather hard.

Hence we call them _broad-leaved_ or _hardwood_ trees. Since most of these trees drop their leaves in winter, we often speak of them as _deciduous_ trees. By far the larger part of the lands of the Eastern states that are now cultivated were found by the first settlers to be covered with hardwood trees. We are familiar with many of the hardwoods through their use in furniture and various household utensils and farm implements. The most important varieties are the walnut, hickory, chestnut, beech, maple, ash, oak, elm, locust, and linden.

There are not many broad-leaved trees in the forests of the West. The children of the West miss all the nut trees that the boys and girls of the East enjoy. But to make up for this lack there are some in the West that are not found in the East. The sugar pine, the pinon pine, and the digger pine afford delicious nuts which once formed an important article of food for the Indians. In the West the broad-leaved trees do not form dense forests. They are scattered among the pines on the lower mountain slopes, in the valleys, and along the streams. The most important of these trees are oaks of many kinds, soft maple, alder, cottonwood, sycamore, and laurel.

The dense forests of the Western mountains consist almost wholly of narrow-leaved trees. Among them are the pines and firs of different kinds, spruce, cedar, redwood, and "big trees." The redwoods and "big trees" are both known as sequoias; they grow to an immense size upon the mountains of California. The coniferous forests of which these trees form a part are among the most wonderful and interesting ones on the earth.

If you will take a forest map of our country and place it beside a rainfall map, you will quickly discover why the forests are found where they are. You will see that the forests are found where there is more than thirty inches of rain each year, except in the far North, where it is very cold. You can say, then, that the climate is the chief thing that determines where the forests shall grow.

If the climate is warm and the rainfall heavy, the forest vegetation is so dense and rank that you can hardly travel through it. Such forests are found in the tropical parts of the country. Where little rain falls there is scanty vegetation, as upon the deserts of the Southwest. But where it is very cold, even if there is much snow or rain, you will find no trees.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _George J. Young_ Mountain hemlocks, which John Muir considered the most beautiful of all conifers.]

We must not forget that there is another thing that affects the growth of trees, and that is the soil. Pines like a sandy soil, while most other trees do not. Certain cedars and cypresses like swampy places where no other trees will grow. Many beautiful meadows and prairies have no trees, because the soil is not well drained.

It is very easy to understand why trees cannot grow where it is dry, but how shall we learn of the effect of cold upon them? Shall we have to take a journey of thousands of miles into the far North, until we finally come to the land called the _Barren Lands_ or _tundras_, where the trees become stunted and at last disappear--a land where they cannot longer fight against the cold and live?

Fortunately such a long journey is not necessary. All we have to do is to climb a great mountain range, like the Sierra Nevadas, to pa.s.s through all the different climates which we would experience on a long journey to the arctic regions.

It is only a few miles from the hot San Joaquin Valley, at the base of the Sierras, where it is so dry that irrigation is necessary, to the summit of the range, where the winter climate is as cold as it is in the arctic regions.

In going up the mountains we first come to the foothills, where there is a little more rain than in the valley. Here we find oak trees growing.

Farther up there is still more rain and we come to the pines. Soon we reach the most wonderful coniferous forest in all the world. Here not only is there a great variety of trees, but because of the favorable climate they grow to a great size. As we approach the summit of the mountains the trees become smaller, and at an elevation of about two miles they shrink to the size of little bushes and finally disappear.

They can no longer stand the fierce winds and cold storms of this arctic region.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _George J. Young_ East Vidette, King's River Country, California, showing how, as we approach the summit of the mountains, the trees become smaller.]

We have learned now that the trees do not grow haphazard over our country, but that the rain, the temperature, and the soil determine where they can live.

Within the heart of the forest the trees will come again if we cut them down, but upon its borders, where the air is drier, it is more difficult for them to spring up anew. If we cut them down carelessly and allow fires to burn over the surface, and the water to wash away the soil, they may never come back.

It is important, then, that we understand why trees grow in some places and not in others, in order that we may know how to take care of them.